Six Iraqi Cops said it all....Two Marines gave their all....and Obama flushed it all

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The Last Six Seconds

One can hardly conceive of the enormous grief held quietly within General Kelly as he spoke.

  

On Nov 13, 2010, Lt. General John Kelly, USMC, gave a speech to the Semper Fi Society of St. Louis, MO. This was four days after his son, Lt Robert Kelly, USMC, was killed by an IED while on his 3rd Combat tour. During his speech, General Kelly spoke about the dedication and valour of our young men and women who step forward each and every day to protect us.

  

During the speech, he never mentioned the loss of his own son. He closed the speech with the moving account of the last six seconds in the lives of two young Marines who died with rifles blazing to protect their brother Marines.

  

"I will leave you with a story about the kind of people they are, about the quality of the steel in their backs, about the kind of dedication they bring to our country while they serve in uniform and forever after as veterans. Two years ago when I was the Commander of all U.S. and Iraqi forces, in fact, the 22 ND of April 2008, two Marine infantry battalions, 1/9 "The  Walking Dead," and 2/8 were switching out in Ramadi. One battalion in the closing days of their deployment going home very soon, the other just starting its seven-month combat tour. Two Marines, Corporal Jonathan Yale and Lance Corporal Jordan Haerter, 22 and 20 years old respectively, one from each battalion, were assuming the watch together at the entrance gate of an outpost that contained a makeshift barracks housing 50 Marines. The same broken down ramshackle building was also home to 100 Iraqi police, also my men and our allies in the fight against the terrorists in Ramadi, a city until recently the most dangerous city on earth and owned by Al Qaeda.

Yale was a dirt poor mixed-race kid from Virginia with a wife and daughter, and a mother and sister who lived with him and whom he supported as well. He did this on a yearly salary of less than $23,000.  Haerter, on the other hand, was a middle class white kid from Long Island. They were from two completely different worlds. Had they not joined the Marines they would never have met each other, or understood that multiple America's exist simultaneously depending on one's race, education level, economic status, and where you might have been born. But they were Marines, combat Marines, forged in the same crucible of Marine training, and because of this bond they were brothers as close, or closer, than if they were born of the same woman.

The mission orders they received from the sergeant squad leader I am sure went something like, "Okay you two clowns, stand this post and let no unauthorized personnel or vehicles pass. You clear?"

I am also sure Yale and Haerter then rolled their eyes and said in unison something like, "Yes Sergeant," with just enough attitude that made the point without saying the words, "No kidding ‘sweetheart’, we know what we're doing." They then relieved two other Marines on watch and took up their post at the entry control point of Joint Security Station Nasser, in the Sophia section of Ramadi, Al Anbar, Iraq.

  

A few minutes later a large blue truck turned down the alley way - perhaps 60-70 yards in length, and sped its way through the serpentine of concrete jersey walls. The truck stopped just short of where the two were posted and detonated, killing them both catastrophically. Twenty-four brick masonry houses were damaged or destroyed. A mosque 100 yards away collapsed. The truck's engine came to rest two hundred yards away knocking most of a house down before it stopped. Our explosive experts reckoned the blast was made of 2,000 pounds of explosives.  Two died, and because these two young infantrymen didn't have it in their DNA to run from danger, they saved 150 of their Iraqi and American brothers-in-arms.

  

When I read the situation report about the incident a few hours after it happened I called the regimental commander for details as something about this struck me as different.

  

Marines dying or being seriously wounded is commonplace in combat. We expect Marines regardless of rank or MOS to stand their ground and do their duty, and even die in the process, if that is what the mission takes. But this just seemed different. The regimental commander had just returned from the site and he agreed, but reported that there were no American witnesses to the event - just Iraqi police. I figured if there was any chance of finding out what actually happened and then to decorate the two Marines to acknowledge their bravery, I'd have to do it as a combat award that requires two eye-witnesses and we figured the bureaucrats back in Washington would never buy Iraqi statements. If it had any chance at all, it had to come under the signature of a general officer.

  

I travelled to Ramadi the next day and spoke individually to a half-dozen Iraqi police all of whom told the same story.  The blue truck turned down into the alley and immediately sped up as it made its way through the serpentine. They all said, "We knew immediately what was going on as soon as the two Marines began firing." The Iraqi police then related that some of them also fired, and then to a man,  ran for safety just prior to the explosion. All survived.  Many were injured, some seriously. One of the Iraqis elaborated and with tears welling up said, "They'd run like any normal man would to save his life." "What he didn't know until then," he said, "And what he learned that very instant, was that Marines are not normal."

  

Choking past the emotion he said, "Sir, in the name of God no sane man would have stood there and done what they did." "No sane man." "They saved us all."

  

What we didn't know at the time, and only learned a couple of days later after I wrote a summary and submitted both Yale and Haerter for posthumous Navy Crosses, was that one of our security cameras, damaged initially in the blast, recorded some of the suicide attack. It happened exactly as the Iraqis had described it. It took exactly six seconds from when the truck entered the alley until it detonated.

  

You can watch the last six seconds of their young lives. Putting myself in their heads I supposed it took about a second for the two Marines to separately come to the same conclusion about what was going on once the truck came into their view at the far end of the alley. Exactly no time to talk it over, or call the sergeant to ask what they should do. Only enough time to take half an instant and think about what the sergeant told them to do only a few minutes before, "Let no unauthorized personnel or vehicles pass." The two Marines had about five seconds left to live.

  

It took maybe another two seconds for them to present their weapons, take aim, and open up. By this time the truck was half-way through the barriers and gaining speed the whole time.  Here, the recording shows a number of Iraqi police, some of whom had fired their AKs, now scattering like the normal and rational men they were - some running right past the Marines. They had three seconds left to live.

  

For about two seconds more, the recording shows the Marines' weapons firing non-stop the truck's windshield exploding into shards of glass as their rounds take it apart and tore in to the body of the (I deleted) who is trying to get past them to kill their brothers - American and Iraqi-bedded down in the barracks totally unaware of the fact that their lives at that moment depended entirely on two Marines standing their ground.

  

If they had been aware, they would have known they were safe because two Marines stood between them and a crazed suicide bomber. The recording shows the truck careening to a stop immediately in front of the two  Marines. In all of the instantaneous violence Yale and Haerter never hesitated. By all reports and by the recording, they never stepped back. They never even started to step aside. They never even shifted their weight. With their feet spread shoulder width apart, they leaned into the danger, firing as fast as they could work their weapons. They had only one second left to live.

  

The truck explodes. The camera goes blank. Two young men go to their God. Six seconds. Not enough time to think about their families, their country, their flag, or about their lives or their deaths, but more than enough time for two very brave young men to do their duty into eternity. That is the kind of people who are on watch all over the world tonight - for you.

  

We Marines believe that God gave America the greatest gift he could bestow to man while he lived on this earth - freedom. We also believe he gave us another gift nearly as precious - our soldiers, sailors, airmen, U S Customs and Border Patrol, Coast Guardsmen, and Marines - to safeguard that gift and guarantee no force on this earth can ever steal it away.

  

It has been my distinct honor to have been with you here today. Rest assured our America, this experiment in democracy started over two centuries ago, will forever remain the "land of the free and home of the  brave" so long as we never run out of tough young Americans who are willing to look beyond their own self-interest and comfortable lives, and go into the darkest and most dangerous places on earth to hunt down, and kill, those who would do us harm.

  

God Bless America, and SEMPER FIDELIS !" 

Tribute paid to victims of Father Obamaham and (Sir Edmund) Hillary's Indifference

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  This is being passed around, probably fairly widely by now, but it bears repeating and remembering as the days pass by.  It was sent by a doctor friend of the family, who was/is a client from the recent past, a humourist, a patriot, and a really decent fellow.   The message goes like this:

"A bump in the road" ....(?)                      

President referred to the Benghazi incident as "a bump in the road."   An ex-Navy Seal being interviewed on Fox News regarding a book he has written about how to handle crisis situations in our lives.  At the end of the interview he asked if he could make a comment on Benghazi , and of course the anchor said "yes."  He then thanked Fox News for keeping the Benghazi story in the news, since other news organizations are not.  He said the Seals who died deserve the public knowing the truth about the whole affair.   

>                      (The poem was written by an anonymous Marine Corps officer)
                
                 
> THE BATTLING BOYS OF
> BENGHAZI 

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>                   
We're the battling boys of Benghazi ,

                 

No fame, no glory, no paparazzi.
Just a fiery death in a blazing hell,
Defending our country we loved so well.
>                  
It wasn't our job, but we answered the call,
fought to the Consulate and scaled the wall.

>  

We pulled twenty countrymen from the jaws of fate

Led them to safety and stood at the gate.
> 
Just the two of us and foes by the score,
But we stood fast to bar the door.
> 
Three calls for reinforcement, but all were denied, 
So we fought and we fought and we fought 'til we died.
> 
We gave our all for our Uncle Sam,
But Barack and Hillary did not give a damn. 
>                 
Just two dead Seals who carried the load
No thanks to us...we were just "Bumps In The Road".

_____________________

>  

So, will this reach every American with a computer?  Or do we act like the press and give a pass to the incompetent people who literally sat there in the White House and watched the Seals' execution on live streaming video and did absolutely nothing?

>
The Obama Administration obviously won't be held accountable because they apparently accept Hilary Clinton's assessment, "What difference, at this point,  does it make?

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     El Gringo Viejo does point out that (Sir Edmund) Hillary did have the goodness to tell a grief-deranged mother (while standing in front of  her son's flag-draped casket) the "good news" about how the Marxist Ghouls of the White House were going to "catch that person who made that horrible video about Mohammed."   It was shortly after American taxpayers paid for a lengthy radiocast in Pakistan narrated by both Father Obamaham and (Sir Edmund) Hillary....to the effect that the United States Government had nothing to do with "...that horrid video".  United States Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice announced shortly afterwards that the "Great Victory of the Battle of Benghazi" could only have been won by Obama and (Sir Edmund).

     It was one of those singular moments in American History.   Egypt, Tunisia, Libya, Syria, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, The Emirates, Yemen, the Kurds, the Copts, Bahrain, along with Israel, Jordan, and Lebanon all either lost from or fleeing American influence.   It was a hell of a line in the sand.  At least we taught Putin a lesson or two.

El Gringo Viejo

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El Zorro sends a story about Hillary and the schoolboy

The charges and suspicions concerning (Sir Edmund) HIllary continue to mount up.  To wit:

     Hillary Clinton goes to a primary school in New York to talk about the world.After her talk she offers question time.

 

One little boy puts up his hand. Hillary asks him what his name is.
"Kenneth."
"And what is your question, Kenneth?"
"I have three questions: First - whatever happened in Benghazi? Second - why would you run for President after your husband shamed the office? And, Third - whatever happened to all those things you took when you left the White House?"
Just then the bell rings for recess.
Hillary informs the kiddies that they will continue after recess. When they resume Hillary says, "Okay where were we? Oh, that's right, question time. Who has a question?"
A different little boy puts his hand up; Hillary points him out and asks him what his name is.
"Larry."
"And what is your question, Larry?"
"I have five questions: First - whatever happened in Benghazi? Second - why would you run for President after your husband shamed the office? Third - whatever happened to all those things you took when you left the White House? Fourth - why did the recess bell go off 20 minutes early? And, Fifth - what happened to Kenneth?"
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     This would be even funnier if, in fact, that scenario had not been modus operandi for Hill and Billary for lo these many years.

Back Again from the Paradise of the Adobe Hut

     We returned yesterday, and endured the wonders of a bridge dysfunction that caused a delay of a couple of hours.  The combination of keystone cops administrative inefficiencies and the over-dependence upon inertia and computers has placed us all in a dependency mode that can be exasperating at best and dangerous at worst.

 

The Elegant Trogon

     It was an interesting better part of a month, lots of fulfilled hopes for floridity, birds, butterflies, and rejoining with occasional friends and other visitors.   We have pictured above the Elegant Trogon, who along with the other sub-species (Mexican Mountain, Resplendent, Collared) are found within certain specific geographical environments near our little hideaway.   This particular visitation came into our "land down-under", which is situated between our little adobe hut and the Rio Corona.

     It is about two acres worth of somewhat disciplined and totally- returned-to-primeval status.  But, oddly enough, this event occurred at the point almost contiguous to the house where the moderately huge mora tree (mulberry) has put on its spring leafing and first crop of purple-madness for many species of bird feast.

Warbler or Nuthatch?

     The birds had been heard the day before, but closer down to the river's edge, among the huge cypress trees that line the banks.  At first my thinking was that the sounds being heard were collared doves, who also have come into our little compound en force.  But no!   It was a tribe of elegant trogons....perhaps as many as fifteen.   When speaking among themselves they make a low, almost grinding sound from the throat like a cross between a tom-cat growling mixed with a tom-cat purring.  Trogons have a wide ranging of linguistic tricks so it is necessary to be able to identify the various "methods of expression" they have.  Each sub-specie has as many as five "songs" or calls or close-in group signalling speech.

     We were restored somewhat by the arrival and comfort level of these birds.   Their appearance coincided with the return of a very large flight of the Monarch butterfly, several thousand of whom decided that the hideaway of El Gringo Viejo & Co. was their personal rest stop.  Couple this with the repeated visits by the smallest warbler (or it might be a nuthatch) we have ever seen.

      We could go on and on about the flood of birds, butterflies, and such but it becomes tedious to write as well as to read.  It is best experienced.   Our flamboyan trees have just begun to leaf so we should have a good crimson show of it for late May through September.

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    Now, in spite of the common understanding and the very shallow news reporting, the sense and reality of a substantially restored social environment in Mexico has taken hold amongst the populace.   We have seen a bit of weakening of the Mexican peso due to the fall of petroleum prices.  This has helped us a bit and seemed not to effect the burgeoning tourism and other economic sectors in Mexico much at all.

 

    Also, we shall be posting contributions from El Zorro along with other readers during the next several hours and close-by days.  We appreciate everyone's presence and interest.

 

El Gringo Viejo

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The Maps of Peace and War.....It was not just a thing of chance, this Texas

The Centralist Republic with the separatist movements generated by the dissolution of the Federal Republic are coloured in light grey.

 

  Territory proclaimed its independency

  Territory claimed by the Republic of Texas

  Territory claimed by the Republic of the Rio Grande

 

The black-red areas were the groupings of colonies, counties, States, and  Indian peoples/tribes who were causing the Centralist Republicans the overall problem.   It still, to this day, has never been fully solved.   The Yucatan Peninsula with its majority population composed of various Maya Indian nations, coupled with the European cohort agreed that, with or without  the Peon / Hacienda system, the Yucatan is and was a separate cultural and political region of the Planet, and due to have its own government and choice of style and form of that government.   They, like the Texians and the colonial zones of mainly white people of the States of Zacatecas, Durango, and Texas's non-identical twin, Coahuuila were allied in many ways one with the other....first among the positions was the defence of the Mexican Constitucion de 1824.

     As displayed, what is marked as the Territory of the Republic of the Rio Grande is not of any intellectual, academic, or even historical import.  The writer will be jumped upon by people wearing baseball cleats and golf shoes, but it is simply the fact.   The RRG is the virtual definition of a Tempest in a Tea-pot.   To the extent that Zacatecas and Durango tried to breathe life into the issue was brought to a quick end by Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna with his brutal repression of the people and their defeat shortly before he began to move his armies further to the north.   It is thought that as many as 20,000 people, military and civilian, of that area were killed, frequently after surrendering or during "peace talks".  Equally rough treatment was dispensed to the Yucatan and its people.

 

     The area coloured in dark-grey, in the mind of any Mexican of the Centralist persuasion, was essentially a place of wild, sub-human, people-like things with a precious few isolated communities with a church and a few buildings.   There were fewer than 20,000 White men, about 200,000 Indians of six or more different languages and DNA models who chief life task was killing other Indians, killing White people, stealing horses, stealing White children especially blond girls aged 10 or less, killing priests, and other pursuits better left not included in this posting.  While some of this might be a bit of overstatement, it might well not be....the "American Southwest" was essentially the Spanish - Mexican "whatever & wherever".

 

     In the quest to establish a Central Authority, Lopez de Santa Anna had to disestablish the concept of sovereign States sewn together by a national Constitution that left the day-to-day operation of life, and the needs pertaining thereto, primarily to the care and attention of governments far removed from Mexico City. He, in all truth, wanted to establish a central throne with essentially a royal code.  There, resources could be concentrated and overseen so as to establish the World's most wondrous nation.  If there were troublesome things like elected governors who thought they were important or qualified to govern, it would make  El Presidente Generalissimo would be diminished.   It would be more difficult to establish oneself as the veritable "Napoleon del Oeste".

 

    This was the entire theatre that was being put into good order.

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     Here, to the left, is the specific theatre of the issue between the Mexican Centralist actions and the wild, impulsive, dispersed, back-biting, conspiring, hot-headed, local-control geeks in the little, funny coloured, oddly shaped places on the map.


     The OROG should be warned that the map in question and view is actually a copy of an official map of the day.   Each of the funny coloured and oddly shaped places is an official Colony established and granted either by the Crown of Spain, or later...after around 1822 ....under the authority of the government of Mexico, based in the City of Mexico.
     The idea of the gnomes of government was to put Anglo-Saxons and other "norteamericanos" between the Kiowa, Kickapoo, Apache, and Comanche and the settlements, industries, cities, and interests that lay to the south and west of the Rio Grande.  Various empresarios obtained permits, patents, and authority to introduce Americans of good character into Mexico.  These individuals would head families that would be authorised to receive 1000 square leagues (about 4,500 acres) of tillable land, suitable for farming and or ranching.   Each man and his family would become, essentially, monarchs of tiny kingdoms, held together by the colony's very democratic governance that would cover the affairs of 10 or 20 thousand living souls.
     Conditions were few, but important.  All colonists would have to embrace the Roman Catholic Church as the official church.  All would have to be Spanish speaking, reading, and writing.  No slaves could be introduced or maintained in the state of slavery once having crossed the Sabine River or setting foot within Mexican national territory.  Usually colonies were required to tolerate open range on any property that had not been awarded to a colonist, until such time that a colonist did, in fact, establish his hearth upon his "legua cuadrada.
     One must consider that the average County in Texas to-day has about 1,000 square miles.  Also consider that each 1,000 square miles is about 1,000,000 acres.   So, one could imagine that a Colony the size of five or six present-day Texas Counties would have 5,000,000 acres or so.   Such an extension, with such generous proportions awarded to the colonists would not lead to the presence of large numbers of people.   Granted, professionals and proprietors, along with skilled service providers and paid help for the farming,. ranching, and whatever industry might occur would increase the number over the years, in terms of overall population.
     Also, it was not to be assumed that all the Colonies or all the different colonists of those Colonies were all "common brethren" or a band of brothers, all for one, one for all.   The bickering within the Colony's Assembly, the sniping, whining, blame-casting, and jockeying for advantage seemed almost to be a required sporting event.   Then, enter some dispute between the head of one Colony against the head of another  Colony, and it would make our Congressional relations in Washington, D.C. seem full of warmth and affection.
     A complete list of the various colonies is fairly easy to line up.  To speak to the interior and exterior relationships, the reality of life, the crops, the herds, business, birthing and death is substantially more complex, and more interesting.   For instance, the de Leon Colony, placed on what would later become the city of Victoria was surrounded by Irish colonists of the McMullen / McGwoin Colony.  These were Roman Catholic people by birthright.  But during the time of deteriorating relations between Mexico and the State officially known as Coahuila y Texas, the De Leon people were decidedly pro-Texian, although Mr. de Leon himself was a haughty Mexican aristocrat who considered the "Gaeles and Presbyterians" to be little better than somewhat bathed Vikings.
     When things were really at the point of igniting,  the Mexican colonists of the de Leon's Colony sided with the Constitutionalists while many of the Irish, mostly originals of Ireland and no friends of the Anglos, tended to side with the Mexican Centralist forces and thereby with Lopez de Santa Anna.
     Throughout Texas, various of the "Anglo" group either struck the tent or were active in their support of the Mexican Centralists.  Colonel Juan Bradburn comes to mind, along with a sizable community of merchants, doctors, and commodity traders in Santa Maria del Refugio - Matamoros.  There was even a staff officer among the Centralists with the surname of Washington.
    If I were to be forced to estimate, a figure of 18% comes to mind.  Another 25% probably went back to Alabama, Tennessee, or at least to Louisiana or Arkansas.   Of the Latin group, however, perhaps 15% of the males fled (some for very good reason), while another 15% aided in some manner or another the Centralist forces, and the other 70% sided with the Constitutionalist (anti-Lopez de Santa Anna) forces.
     If we rely too much on the male cohort of the affair, it is simply because the men were bold or cowardly, brash or brave and foolish.  The women simply did.   The women simply suffered.   To think....to have had so little and build it up to so much...and the lose it all....and then build it back again.   It has happened in many times and places....but Texas and Hiroshima and Dresden and the Twin Towers....those things serve as lighthouses to the human drive to establish order from disorder.

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     This submission is made so that folks will understand that this was not a matter of a bunch of people riding valiantly off to a beat-up old church in the middle of nowhere to take target practice on a bunch of Mexican soldiers dressed up like opera - props.   It also is designed to point out that the lands in Texas and the land tenure systems and processes were much more complicated than anyone could imagine after hearing only an overview drawn from the common understanding.    We are looking at over 20 Colonies, most of them aimed at importing foreign immigrants, primarily from the United States, then from Ireland, some from France and England, and some from mainly among the ranks of racially White Mexican citizens from the near or far interior of Mexico.   The "Angl0" group became a majority of the population in Texas, overwhelmingly by 1826.  Before their arrival, the population of Texas by racially white or mestizo Latins probably never exceeded 5,000 souls.
     And yes, when I come back from our place down in the Mountains (leaving to-morrow, by the way), we shall discuss the discord between various ethnic and racial groupings.   It is another story that is much more complicated than many might imagine, especially our hopelessly one-noted president.
Thank each, all, and any who passed a bit of time with this little glimpse into the past.
El Gringo Viejo

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The Alamo, its protection, operation, and guidance

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     When Texians gather to bloviate, opine, and and palaver....all of which are favoured pass-times for us.....the topic might turn to something like, "What is the most important place or site in the Republic of Texas?"    Responses can be as varied as the number of people sitting around the table or at the bar.   One might say, "the home", another "the beaches", one might even say something like his home-town's name, or the Astrodome.   After name a score of more of this place and that thing, someone will inevitably say, "The Alamo".  

     Everyone at the table or bar, or on the deck in the patio will quiet for a bit, and then agree.   The Alamo.

      There are relatively few people living in Texas who can say that their lineage dates from a time of the First Republic of Texas or before.  Most understandings, even of citizen Texians, about that time and the time of the Siege and final Battle of the Alamo, come from the Davy Crockett series of productions by Walt Disney, other movies including but not limited to John Wayne's fusion of  The Alamo and She Wore a Yellow Ribbon.  Both movies had considerable fact and impressive casts and colour, but each also made detours and convenience stops on the way to the place that would actually permit a totally true image of the circumstances.

    We have stated many times on this fountain of information and commentary that both overall commanders of the theatre of action by the Texian  and Mexican Centralists would have been tried before a military court for dereliction during any saner time.   It was a case where both sides, if fully committed to their respective offence and defence, would necessarily lose that battle.  The only question to resolve would be, who would win the final battle later.

     Our issue here concerns another battle.   It is one that has brewed for scores of years and it involves the deportment of the Daughters of the Republic of Texas and their stewardship of the building, grounds, and operation of all things directly pertinent to The Alamo.  To be sure, it has been a difficult task, requiring considerable acts that would challenge even the most competent high-wire performance artiste.  Crossing the Niagara Falls cataract would probably be simpler.

    (1)   For instance, The Alamo is not a movie prop.  It is a mission chapel of Roman Catholic missionary orders who established a string of small to medium sized churches and plantations in and around an outpost known as San Antonio, fairly late in the Spanish Colonial period.   It was designed to attract what can only be described as primitive Indians who were caught between very superior military and cultural Indian nations...to the north, the Comanche, certain Apaches, Kiowa and Kickapoo raiders....to the east by Caddos and related types of Cherokee, Chickasaw, Alabamas, Creek,  all of whom were accomplished and strong in war and agriculture and internal cultural complexity.  To the south there had been an array of advanced MesoAmerican ''Indians'' over the millennia, among them the Huastec, Tarascan, Totonac, Nahua (Aztecs), Mexica, Otomi, Tlaxcala, and others who regarded the Indians of that area that would in these days be known as "Texas" as inferiors and essentially sub-human.
     The friars strove, with varying degrees of success and failure, to educate and instructive and guide the Indians from around-and-about what was San Antonio de Valero.   Incessant Indians raids, chiefly from the north, seemed to always set all or most efforts back every few years.   But, at their finest and during their best hours and days, El Alamo and the Mision de San Jose rose to true Spanish and Roman Catholic grandeur.
    One of the "lesser" problems is that it is known that both pre-Spanish and post-Spanish arrival, there were many interments of native peoples in and around the place generally associated with the plantation zone of the Alamo.
   Massive, quality crops, animals, irrigation, mills, fibres of many kinds, Indians with two grades of school...or more....and elegant structures marked various cultural and economic high-water marks in an area that the Spanish Court had to consider what we would equate with a colony on Venus or Saturn's moons during these days.
     These things all are fed into the "computer archive" of reality concerning this fabled place.   And, of course, we have another huge elephant in the parlour when it must be considered that The Alamo was and will remain forever, Christian Holy Ground.

     (2)    It is an historical place.  For all the things that went on before the famous battle, it is historical.  For the events of November through the first week of March of 1835 - 1836 it is famously historical.  And its legacy as a football in the game of high-stakes tourism, cultural preservation, sociological egocentrism, has been involved in a minimum of five to ten per cent, directly or indirectly, of everything that has made politics and cultural issues percolate in San Antonio since shortly after the War Between the States.
     Angling for position at the very centre of the second largest metroplex in the Republic now, are all new and continuing commercial interests.  One needs to consider, for instance, that the Alamo Dome, where the San Antonio Spurs play, can be reached by a not too distant 20-minute walk (with comfortable shoes) from The Alamo.   HemisFair Plaza, La Villita commercial district, and all nature of business and accommodation is within the same walking distance.

     Mistakes have been made and successes have been achieved with reference to the space, time, and application of activities and resources in the centre of San Antonio.   But, festering just out of sight, during the past two or three generations, has been the discord and disagreement concerning the handling and administration of the physical, abstract, literary, and legal use rights  of the property and existence of "The Alamo".
     Much of the "sticking in the craw" has been a perceived difficulty in dealing with the Daughters of the Republic of Texas.   As stewards of the property, by deference and Legislative Act of the Legislature of the State of Texas (Congress of the Republic of Texas) the ladies have done considerable work and improvement of the physical plant and good order of the Alamo.  The problem is that they have been perceived by some as becoming increasingly high-handed and hermetic in their operations.
     There is all manner of disagreement about the handling of important documents and accounts of the events.   Rumours and complaints arise, some frivolous and selfish, others that raise legitimate question according to respected observers, about favouritism and unjustifiable selectivity concerning historical interpretation, access to documents, and matters that are very serious...in no wise petty....about substantial administrative issues concerning the state of affairs to-day.    We defer from participating or commenting further so as to not mislead and so as to avoid being dragged into court.
     The fact remains that State of Texas, its Legislature and Governor, acting through the good offices of appropriate authority, the Land Commissioner of the State, have decided to re-assume ownership and control of the overall operations of The Alamo.  It is my estimation that the overwhelming majority of Texians....both of the ancient and studied order and those who have come later....are in favour of this action.  A powerful group of philanthropists / business people with a long history of doing things in the great and general good of the Republic of Texas, along with the good order of the Republic will make a good thing better.   It will become more involved in the deep academics of the issue of what was and is The Alamo, and the Sanctity of the Place and those who have lived and died at and about it will be protected.

     I endorse the assumption of The Alamo by the Texas Land Commission, although it is my recommendation to oppose at all costs any further allowance of the dedication of The Alamo and all of the Spanish Colonial Missions and structures...to the category of UNESCO World Heritage site.

El Gringo Viejo

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